BABOONS. 



57 



tales of the battles round Troy. The 

 hostilities between these monkeys, however, 

 are said to be confined to horrible grimaces, 

 bellowing, gnashing with the teeth, beating 

 the hands on the ground, and tearing the hair 

 from perruques and mantles, and only seldom 

 to lead to serious wounds with the teeth. 



The Common Baboon (C Babidti) which 

 inhabits Central Africa from Abyssinia to 

 Mozambique, may be taken as representative 

 of the maneless smooth-haired baboons, which 

 in walking on all-fours always carry the tail 

 curved as depicted in fig. 12. The Chacma 

 or Pig-faced Baboon (C pOTcarius) and the 

 Guinea Baboon (C sphinx) are allied, though 

 somewhat larger and differently coloured 

 species. All three are frequently brought to 

 Europe, but most frequently the mouse- 

 coloured baboon with the dark back, which 

 on account of its docility and good-nature is 

 never wanting as an actor in the monkey- 

 theatres. The mode of life of these creatures 

 in a state of nature resembles that of the 

 mantled baboons, their food is the same; 

 their otherwise good qualities are frequently, 

 as in the case of the latter animals, thrown 

 into the shade by the violence of their sexual 

 instincts. At the Cape the chacma is hated 

 and eagerly pursued on account of its destruc- 

 tiveness, cunning, and savage disposition; but, 

 on the other hand, it is also frequently tamed 

 and employed in searching for water, for 

 which employment it is said, like most ba- 

 boons, to manifest a peculiar fitness, even 

 when the water lies at a considerable depth 

 below the surface. Water is a real necessity 

 for all baboons on account of the frequently 

 dry character of their food. Their halting- 

 places are always selected in the neighbour- 

 hood of water, and it is therefore all the more 

 singular that they cannot swim, but sink to the 

 bottom without being able to save themselves. 



In South Africa baboons are often very destruc- 

 tive amongst the sheep and crops of the farmers. 

 Anxious to indulge in a little baboon hunting by 

 way of recreation on the borders of the Orange 



River Free State, Dr. Emil Holub on one occasion 

 made inquiries of a farmer as to how to proceed in 

 order to gratify his wish. The farmer was at once 

 extremely communicative. So pitiable was his 

 account of the losses he had in various ways sus- 

 tained through the baboons, writes Dn Holub, "we 

 could well understand the grin of satisfaction with 

 which he learnt our object. He became more and 

 more loquacious in his desire to render information ; 

 and when I further explained to him that we were 

 anxious to get some of their skins to stuff, and to 

 carry off some of their skulls, he was quite as- 

 tounded; he had never heard of such a thing, and 

 exclaiming, ' Allmachtag, wat will )-e dun.'' he 

 walked off, shaking his head, to tell his wife of the 

 doctor's 'wonderlijke' proposal to shoot a 'babouin,' 

 and to send its skull all the way to 'Duitsland.'" 

 It was resolved to lie in ambush for the baboons 

 at their drinking resort. "Only a few minutes 

 had elapsed when one of the farm-boys drew 

 our attention to what seemed little more than a 

 couple of dark specks on the slope of the hills to 

 the right; but we could soon see that they were 

 moving, and when they came within half a mile of 

 us, we could distinctly recognize them as a herd of 

 baboons. The boy said he was quite sure that they 

 were on their way to the water; but to our surprise 

 they did not make any further advance. A quarter 

 of an hour elapsed; half an hour; still no symptom 

 of their approach. All at once, as if they had 

 started from the earth by magic, at the open end 

 of the pond, not sixty yards from our place of 

 ambush, stood two huge males. When or how they 

 had got there no one could tell; probably they had 

 come by a circuitous way through the valley, or it 

 might be that they had crept straight down through 

 the grass; they had certainly eluded our observation. 

 Being anxious to watch the movements of the 

 animals, and to ascertain whether they belonged to 

 the herd playing under the mimosas, I refrained 

 from firing, and determined to see what would 

 follow next. Both baboons sprang towards the 

 water, and leaning down, drank till they were 

 satisfied ; then, having gravely stretched themselves, 

 they stalked away solemnly on all-fours in the 

 direction of the herd. There was little doubt, 

 therefore, that they belonged to them, and had been 

 sent forward to reconnoitre; for as soon as they 

 got back, the entire herd put itself in motion, and 

 made its way towards the pond. There were 

 mothers taking care of their little ones ; there were 

 the half-grown animals, the boys and girls of the 



8 



